First thing the next morning, I text John to thank him for having me over. I stare at my phone for nearly ten minutes before I have to concede that he’s not going to answer right away.

I don’t have to worry about finding a distraction, I’ve already summoned my sisters to help out with my newest project.

“Okay.” I say, clapping my hands together to get all of my sister’s attention once they’ve gathered in the attic the next morning. “Today, I’m making a video. Well, I’m starting a video. We are.” Okay, I’m over excited, tired and rambling. “Basically, I need your help.”

I barely slept last night as my plan came together, partly from excitement and partly from nerves. Really, I just took what Carol said and ran with it and then built on it, then scrapping everything I came up with and built up my plan again, until I thought I had something that could actually get our cause the attention it needs.

Maybe.

If I don’t screw this up.

“I want to raise money for the girls on our team to be able to play again. Not on the school team. I don’t even know yet if there are any leagues here we could join. I’m not totally sure. Even if we can just get a private coach once a month for the rest of the school year, so we’re not totally out of shape by the time next year starts. Or maybe we get a head start on raising money for next year’s team. Since we’re raising it ourselves we could get a guarantee that it goes to our team next year. We’ll see. I’m only getting started. I’m hoping you guys would be willing to get involved.”

“Why?” Rhiannon asks, getting to the heart of the issue.

“We've already asked Fairview for money. So if we have any chance of getting more, we need to go bigger.”

“And…” Rhiannon prods. She’s probably already guessed a couple steps ahead of what I’ve told her. I might as well come clean.

“I’m thinking a video featuring the Fairview Four might grab some people’s attention. They still air repeats of those special we were in as babies. For whatever reason, people are still interested in who we are. So maybe those people might be willing to help. Or at least willing to share a video featuring the Donovan Quads as teenagers. I don’t know.”

“You’re basically looking to take advantage of people’s interest in multiples to bring attention to your cause?” Reagan asks, probably not expecting an answer. She shrugs. “Yeah, that could work.”

“I’m going to take it farther than that.” I promise. “Maybe it’s not the case everywhere, but women’s issues are getting more attention than ever. Maybe, this could be one, but first, I need to get people’s attention.”

I knew it wouldn’t take much to get my sisters on board. A year ago, Reagan might have been reluctant to do something that could be this public, but her drama class has made a bigger difference than even I saw. She knows exactly what we need to make this happen and is full of ideas that are way more exciting than anything I came up with.

We don’t end up filming our introduction for a few days until we have the right equipment, the right lighting and a script. I love what we come up with.

What comes next is a little more work, since I need to get as much of what would have been our team together as possible. If we want anyone we don’t actually know to care about what happens to our team, we have to be able to show them that we’re willing to put in the work.

So we work. As Reagan and her friend Rosie sit on the sidelines and film our practice, we run through drills and go head to head, trying to show the world what we can do.

Unlike our last attempt at fundraising when our goal was to get the entire town behind us, this time, we keep things quiet. Easier said than done when the people trying to keep a secret are a group of teenage girls, but I can’t exactly see the school or the down behind all that enthusiastic about our efforts.

So, I’d rather ask for forgiveness than permission.

I still have zero intention of asking for forgiveness either. They’re the ones who should be apologizing.

The video starts to come together over days, then a week, all the while I’m researching how to setup my own crowdfunding campaign.

The longest I ever go without working on it is three days, when my next math test is approaching. I don’t even need my parents to tell me that my grades for the year really can’t afford for me to screw this one up too. So for three days, I switch gears from soccer to math, but after the test is done—I doubt I got higher than a B, but still—it’s back to soccer, figuring how and what to include that might get people interested, and get them to want to help.

We matter.

It takes longer than I think it will to get everything I need, and to get it all right.

No matter what comes from this, I want to do it properly. Instead of charging in and hoping for the best, I plan and I organize. I actually take breaks when I need them. Mostly.

My team and I get in the habit of playing soccer together twice, on a regular schedule, without the camera present.

I like to think that everyone comes out because they think this might actually work, and that they want to be ready. Maybe it’s just they missed the feeling of passing a ball between their teammates, of scoring goals on an unsuspecting goalkeeper.

After our second practice, I’m completely exhausted, passing out on the couch as soon as I get home.

I must have been completely out of it because by the time I wake up, Molly is sleeping on my chest even though I never felt her jump up on the couch, or on me.

The startled look on my face must be pretty amusing, because the next thing I notice is Dad laughing at me from across the room, sitting in his favorite chair with a newspaper on his lap.

“How was practice?” He asks once I’m sitting up, having moved a still sleeping Molly to my lap.

“Kind of hectic.” I admit. “It’s a little weird without having a coach.”

“Have you thought about asking Coach Wasserman if she’d be willing to be come out in the evenings sometimes, so at least you have a little direction?”

I actually hadn’t, even now that it has been suggested, I’m not sure it’s possible. “We couldn’t pay her or anything like the school does. It doesn’t seem fair.”

“Well, it never hurts to ask. If nothing else, she’d probably be willing to give you a bit of direction on how you can best spend your time during practices.”

“Hmm, fair enough. Good idea.”

“I know. Every once in a blue moon, I surprise you.”

Despite my nap, my body isn’t quite ready to get up off the couch yet. Though I can already tell that when I do get up, it’ll be because I’ve gotten too hungry to wait any longer. My stomach is already rumbling, having already burned through everything I’ve eaten today. I snuggle deeper into the overstuffed couch cushions.

“I’m proud of you, sweetheart.” Dad says, still watching me. “Your idea was a great one.”

“It hasn’t actually worked yet.”

“Well, you haven’t actually finished it yet.” Dad points out. “Whatever comes of this, you’ll have made an impact. Either you raise all the money you’re hoping for and take over the world, or you draw attention to what happened, helping to make sure it doesn’t happen again next year. Whichever outcome you get, it's a good one.”

His words are enough to convince me to get up.

“Where are you off to?” Dad asks, still in his chair.

“I’ve got almost half of the footage. I want to start trying to edit it into something I can work with. I have no idea how to edit something like this, so it’ll probably take a while.”

Dad chuckles. “Fair enough. If you’re hungry, there’s a plate of leftovers in the fridge for you. Pot roast with some vegetables.”

Okay, editing can wait a few more minutes, but after that, I’ve got a video to put together.

Learning how to edit video doesn’t exactly come naturally, but as Halloween approaches, I become completely obsessed. If I’m going to do this, I’m going to do it right.

It needs to look good.

The introduction to the video is my favorite part. There’s a clip of each of my sisters doing something they love. Art, drama and studying. Each one comes with a voice over… “I’m a girl and I love… whatever.” Then there’s me, playing soccer with my friends.

I’m a girl and I love sports, but according to my town and my school, my passion for soccer isn’t going to matter in the long run.

According to them, our team wasn’t worth saving.

That's exactly what I say into the mic that Reagan borrowed from the drama department, so we could include a decent audio track with the video.

From there, the view flips to a late afternoon practice that shows a group of girls absolutely working their asses off as the voiceover summarizes what happened and what we want to do about it.

I never once spell out what Joel, Coach Wasserman or anyone else actually said. Instead, I let the story speak for itself.

Okay, I hint pretty heavily at exactly what I want people to take away from what I’m telling them. Our team lost out because our school didn’t think we were as valuable as the guys.

No matter, we love the game just as much as they do. Maybe we even love it more after having it ripped away from us. That's exactly what I want to show the world.

This matters to us.

In the end, it ends up being a month before I’m finally ready and even then, I still have Rhiannon look over everything for me. She manages to make the finished project even better.

In the end, what we have feels a little like magic.

It’s good. It’s actually really good.

On a random friday night that feels like it should be any other day, I finally talk myself into hitting publish on both our video and the campaign to go with it.

It’s up, it’s done. It’s out in the world.

That's not even the scariest moment. Not by a long shot.

The part I really dread is what comes next, posting all of it together to Facebook. My finger hesitates on my keyboard, not quite ready to hit enter.

I’ve been working on this for what feels like forever. This video has so much of me in it that it feels like putting it out into the world is basically an open invitation for people to look inside my soul.

People might decide they aren’t interested and just click away.

It's not like backing out is really even an option at this point. Everyone I know knows I’ve been working on this, they know it’s almost ready.

This is going to happen one way or the other.

I hit send on my post that includes a link to the campaign as well as a request for everyone who sees it to share.

Now it’s just a matter of waiting to see if the people around me are going to care as much as I hope they will.

As much as I need them to.

I shutdown my computer before I can drive myself insane.